SC: No obligation to disclosure grounds of arrest at pre-detention stage under RTI

14 Jul, 2012

A three-judge bench of justices Altamas Kabir, Gyan Sudha Misra and J Chelameshwar of the Supreme Court has held that under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, there is no obligation on the state to disclose the grounds of detention of a person under a preventive detention law before his arrest.
It means that a person detained under the preventive detention laws like NSA, COFEPOSA etc is not required to be treated in the same manner as a person arrested in connection with the commission of an alleged offence.

The Supreme Court dismissed a bunch of RTI petitions seeking disclosure of information under the RTI Act for detunes at the pre-detention stage holding that its earlier judgement in the Choith Nanikram Harchandai and Suresh Hotwani case wherein it was ruled that such disclosure was mandatory should not be treated as a precedent.

The apex court also said "The exercise of powers vested in the superior courts in judicially reviewing executive decisions and orders cannot be subjected to any restrictions by an order of the court of law….. The most precious right of a citizen is his right to freedom and if the same is to be interfered with, albeit in the public interest, such powers have to be exercised with extra caution and not as an alternative to the ordinary laws of the land”.